


Together Or Not At All

by Soliepower



Series: Together [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-20 05:07:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14253660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soliepower/pseuds/Soliepower
Summary: Fitz gets out of his cell for different reasons.My spin on 5x16





	Together Or Not At All

It started just past night fall. Or what the agents inside the Lighthouse assumed was nightfall.

The underground bunker was quiet, as it usually was.

Mack was in the makeshift lab, working on ideas to improve Yo-Yo's arms while watching over the feed of Fitz's cell. Daisy, May and Deke had left hours before in search of Robin; leaving him in charge of the zoned off engineer.

Yo-Yo had been by to see him earlier, asking him to let the man out but after his refusal she hadn't come back.

After a few moments of working, he stopped. The hairs at the base of his neck standing on end.

Everything was too quiet. 

Straining his ears he heard it. The heavy footsteps quickly making their way into the lab behind him.

Dropping the tools he was working with, he reached for the gun in his waistband. Drawing the weapon he spun around pointing it who entered behind him. 

"Not you again."

* * *

 In the room that she and Fitz claimed as their own their first night in the Lighthouse, Jemma sat silently thinking over ways to convince Mack to release Fitz.

She had an idea but wasn't sure if it would pan out. Despite believing she was invincible, there was still a tendril of fear within her. What if something happened to her? What if the loop was already broken and she and everyone else hadn't yet realized it? What if in the time she believed she was invincible, the loop got broken and she was no longer safe? 

She couldn't risk herself. Not with the state that Fitz was in. He had told her once before that he couldn't live in a world without her in it. With his brain and mind still fragile, losing her would no doubt destroy him. 

She couldn't do that.

Deciding to go talk to Fitz, she pushed herself from the bed, making her way to the door. Just as she was about to push it open the bunker's alarms started to sound. 

The high pitched whirling stunned her for a brief moment before she sprung into action, leaping for her gun her table.

Pointing it forward, she reached for the door.

The hallways were full of agents rushing around, following exit procedures.

Knowing that there was always a chance of being found, Coulson created exit plans for all agents to follow and get to safety. He refused to risk their safety or freedom any longer.

Jemma pushed past the other agents and made her way towards Fitz's cell. She wasn't able to let him out. But she would protect him from whoever had entered the base.

* * *

 

Fitz was sitting silently in his cell waiting for word on his possible release. 

Jemma and Yo-Yo had been by earlier and from what Jemma said, he believed that she had a plan. 

He didn't like not being able to help. To help her.

He was struggling each day. Remembering his time in prison, not seeing anyone but the soldiers that interviewed him. 

He was remembering his first year on the Bus. He and Jemma separated by a wall of glass. Watching her as she worked on the other side. Powerless to do anything to help her.

The helplessness he once felt after his injury rushed back at him as his internal struggle continued. 

There was a part of him that regretted what he did. He didn't want to hurt Daisy, but there was no other way. Within hours the rift was going to reach the surface, unleashing all of their fears onto the unsuspecting town above. Daisy wouldn't have done it. She said so herself. He had no other option.

But he did, didn't he?

He could have told Jemma. They could have worked on a solution together. 

But he didn't.

The voice inside his head won out and he set in action his plan.

It worked.

But now look at where he was.

Waiting in silence, for a visitor to come. 

His silent lement was interrupted by the bunker's alarms. The fear manifestations gone, he knew the alarms could only mean one thing. 

Someone found their hideout and the intruders were making their way through the multi-leveled bunker.

The feeling of helplessness seemed in once again. 

The base was under attack and he was stuck behind a glass wall, unable to help his fellow agents. Unable to help his wife.

Where was she? Was she following procedure and evacuating? Not likely. 

She was more likely staying to help fellow agents or to fight herself. That was the woman that she was.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of distant footsteps, approaching the cell.

He knew the sound of those footsteps.

Jemma.

* * *

 

Jemma made her way through the base, pointing agents in the direction of escape, eyes peeled for the intruders. So far she saw none.

Entering the hallway that led to Fitz's cell, her pace increased.

A few steps before the opening of the hall, she felt a tug on her hair. Spinning around she was face to face with a foe she had seen mere days before.

It was a robot similar to the ones that Mack brought back for Yo-Yo's arms. Similar to the ones that Fitz programmed to point guns at herself and Mack.

But this one was different. It was programmed for something else entirely. By someone else.

The android advanced on her, attacking her in her moment of disbelief.

Hale found their base. 

She sent the robots after them.

They, Coulson, had been duped.

Firing shot after shot at the robot, Jemma darted around the hall, narrowly avoiding hits the bot was sending her way.

One of the bot's arms struck against her left shoulder, sending her to the wall with a shout.

Pushing herself back up, Jemma rushed toward the direction of Fitz's cell hoping to make it there.

Hoping that she could somehow hack the door and enter the cell, safely hiding herself and Fitz away.

Her hopes were dashed as the android knocked her on her feet, with a single blow.

She fell backward, slamming her head against the concrete floor. The sickening crack she heard frightened her. 

The edges of her world began to close in as she began to feel nauseous. Swallowing back the bile that began to rise in her throat, she turned to her stomach, hands reaching forward in an attempt to claw her way out of the hall, towards others who could aid her.

But again the android overpowered her.

She felt the cold metal hand of the bot grab her shoulder and roughly turn her over. The heavy body of the bot put all of its' weight on her as he crouched a top of her.

The position was ironic, she thought.

This was the same position she was in when she stabbed and killed Fitz's LMD. But that time was was the attacker, the victor; this time she was the victim, the loser.

She thrashed against the body the best that she could as she felt the cold hands enclose around her throat. The pressure was unbearable, just as it had been with Fitz's LMD. The edges of her world continued to close in on her as she gasped for air. 

One of her hands was reaching up to the bot's face, pushing it away and hoping that she could do something. The other hand was hitting the floor around her. Looking for the gun she dropped when the android initially knocked her down. 

Her fingers brushed against the muzzle as she attempted to pull it toward her.

She only had seconds left before she would pass out.

If the bot didn't loosen it's grip; seconds left to live.

She managed to pull the gun towards her and angled it up best she could at the base of the bot's neck.

Using the last bit of strength she had she pulled the trigger.

* * *

 

Fitz stood at Jemma's footsteps and moved toward the window of his cell, waiting to see her enter through the wide opening of the hall.

But he never did. 

His heart stopped as he heard another set of footsteps echo through the hall. They were heavy. Heavier than any gate that belonged to an agent. 

He heard the struggle begin and his heart dropped.

"Jemma?" He called out, hoping for some sort of response.

His heart rate increased as he stared at the empty opening, hoping that if he stared long enough Jemma would appear.

Instead he heard her frightened gasp and shriek and a loud thud. 

"Jemma! Jemma please!"

Please what? Please answer me? Please be okay? Please be alive?

He was at the door now, pulling as had as he could hoping that maybe he could do something to open it. That he could do something to help his wife.

But the door didn't budge. Moving back to the window he listened for any sign that Jemma was okay. 

Instead her heard a sickening crack. The sound that could only be made when a skull slammed against a cement floor.

Jemma's skull.

"Jemma please." He whimpered.

A few moments of broken silence covered the cell. 

Then two gunshots.

Then nothing.

Fitz could feel his world crumbling around him. A hollowed emptiness settling in.

But there was nothing he could do, except wait.

* * *

Mack was making his way through the base, checking every dark corner. He managed to fight off the damned robot that broke into the lab before hitting the bunker's alarms. Moving around the base he encountered another 3 bots before killing them. 

He found Yo-Yo on his search and he sent her to guard some of the agents that were hiding in the med bay while he continued his search.

The only place he had left to search was Fitz's cell. Ignoring the sinking feeling he had as he approached the hallway leading to the cell, he pushed forward.

When he rounded the corner his heart stopped.

Jemma was on the ground, not moving. No rise and fall of her chest, no sounds coming from her. Nothing.

A few feet to her side lay an android, his face sparking and twitching.

Dashing toward Jemma's fallen body he placed his fingers on her neck. He grimaced as he saw the dark, purple bruises already forming at the base of it. He pushed past his own fear and felt for a pulse. 

For a few moments there was nothing.

But then he felt it. Weak but there.

His shoulders sagged in relief as he heard the yelling. 

No. The screaming. The agonizing screaming coming from the cell down the hall.

Fitz was screaming for Jemma.

Mack winced as he realized that Fitz heard the whole thing. The whole attack on his wife. 

Ignoring the calls coming from down the hall, Mack carefully lifted Jemma into his arms and rushed her to the med bay.

Halfway there he realized the trouble they could be in. Jemma was their doctor.

Sure some of the agents that were in the base were medically trained. But were any of them capable of aiding the fallen scientist?

He could only hope so as he ran into the room.

"What the hell happened?" Yo-Yo cried, rushing to his side.

Mack laid Jemma on a gurney and called for some of the medically trained staff.

"I have no idea. I found her passed out, next to a dead bot. Her neck is bruised and she is barely breathing. I think her skull is cracked too. There was some blood."

The doctors rushed around Jemma, blocking her body from his view.

"What about Fitz?"

Mack only shook his head.

* * *

 

FItz only stopped calling for Jemma when his throat became too raw to continue.

He now sat in the single chair at the table in his room. Waiting.

The other voice in his head returned.

The chilling voice of the Doctor telling him that this was all his fault. That he couldn't protect Jemma. That she was likely dead all because he was too weak to help her.

He didn't deserve her.

He jumped to his feet the second he heard footsteps approach.

He kept his eyes wide open, ignoring the tears gathering there.

He pictured Jemma walking toward the cell, nervously laughing as she assured him that she was fine. Apologizing for worrying him. Placing her hand against the window for him put his own against.

He imagined chastising her. Telling her how angry he was for worrying him. But smiling at her in relief.

Instead he saw Mack approach the cell.

"Where is she?" The word came out as a whisper, his throat to raw for anything else.

"Med bay." 

That was all he said as he pressed the combination into Fitz's cell, barely getting the door open as the engineer pushed past him racing toward the medical area.

Yo-Yo was standing at the door, silent tears cascading down her cheeks as we rounded the corner.

She looked to the floor, unable to maintain any eye contact with him.

His heart dropped as he saw her.

She was laying in a bed looking so pale and small.

Her head was bandaged and there was a large cut on her bottom lip. The entire right side of her face was bruised and the base of her neck hand fingerprints imprinted on it in blue and purple bruises. 

"She faught the bastard as hard as she could." He heard Mack say behind him. But the words were lost on him.

Jemma. His Jemma was laying in a hospital bed and he could do nothing to help her.

"Leave." The word came out cold and harsh. "Please." This one a whimper.

Mack and Yo-Yo silently left the room leaving Fitz alone with Jemma and a single doctor.

"Um, she has a few broken ribs and a lot of bruising on her face and neck. The bot likely sat on her chest as he.....Her skull is cracked likely from an impact against the floor. We don't have the best equipment here but we were able to use what we have to know that there is some brain activity. There's not much. But it's there."  
  
Fitz remained silent. His eyes locked on Jemma, where they had been from the moment he entered the room.

"She was without oxygen for at least 3 minutes. Agent Mackenzie found her in time for us to perform CPR but at this time, we don't know if she will wake up."

* * *

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This was based on an idea I had just moments after waking up the night after 5x16 aired.
> 
> Reviews would be kind. Positive or negative.  
> I read through this several times to edit it, but mistakes happen. So any mistakes that are there, I'm sorry!
> 
> I might do a follow up depending on what the response to this is.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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